ESR: Page 36 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

ESR

Burnwinter

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert And what does "then he came in and didn't participate"

"I didn't bring him onto the pitch"?

Big Willie

Burnwinter "I didn't bring him onto the pitch"?

That would mean it was down to Arteta, and not ESR, that he wasn't on the pitch. Can't be admitting that.

Burnwinter

Arteta's been evading accountability for a while, to be frank, thinks we aren't noticing.

I don't think it's useful for him to talk this way about Smith Rowe when it's so blatant he's the one who's marooned him, one way or another.

RocktheCasbah

To be fair, maybe it took Emile a while to get past the surgery and back to a level. I won't be able to watch the game tonight, but really hoping for a strong showing for him because with the travails of Vieira & Havertz and injuries elsewhere, there is an opportunity opening up for him.

Burnwinter

RocktheCasbah To be fair, maybe it took Emile a while to get past the surgery and back to a level.

Arteta's signed a couple of players ahead of Smith Rowe and also to be fair, one of them is a beast in Trossard. The other looks like a "dog ate my homework" level excuse for not playing the Hale End man at the moment—with a £65m price tag.

I do think we've been pretty reasonable wondering when Smith Rowe would get his chance, sounds like he will in the League Cup at least.

Might seem a bit mean to Arteta now, but as soon as Smith Rowe is playing, a massive amount of pressure falls on him instead.

goon

You guys are so weird.

RocktheCasbah

Oh yeah, not saying there's anything unreasonable in wondering about where ESR has been for the last year (and the irony of us two in particular having this conversation, given you know how much I rate him is not lost on me). I just think that there are mitigating circumstances in Emile's lack of game time. Of course, I see the recruitment over the last year and a half and worry that Arteta, despite his public utterances, doesn't quite hold the same regard for Emile that most of us here do. But then we had the same worries about Gabriel Martinelli a couple of seasons back.

The proof will, of course come over the next few weeks, but given the inconsistency of Vieira, Havertz being Havertz and the injuries we currently have, it seems unlikely that Emile isn't going to get some sort of chance again.

Burnwinter

True. Taking it easy, it'd be very good for our season if he was finally gifted a solid seventy minutes and did well.

awooga83

I think that's the main point there have been chances to play Smith Rowe, once the season collapsed at the end and even a game like PSV who are a very open side and Arteta doesn't do it just makes it difficult to take the position is genuine he's been trying to find a way in for him.
Not to mention the way he's going has been similar to how Arteta treated players who has cut adrift. Finally the way he accommodates other players more in favour and the amount of opportunities he gives even if they don't really demonstrate an impact makes it hard to reconcile what's happened to Smith Rowe so far.

But tonight should shed some more light on that he should be playing this match in it's entirety and being given a chance to do that over a few games even if it doesn't click right away as he does with other players who do seem to be in favour.

Qwiss

and tomorrow he will have a big chance to show that he can play at this level

Fuck off.

Kel Varnsen

Weird thing to say. ESR has already proven beyond any doubt that he can not only play, but also dominate at "this" level.

SimplyThePest

Kel Varnsen He probably knows he's fucked up there but is doubling down on it instead of admitting he may have made a bad call.

Don Pacifico

I think it's within the context of his rehabilitation. Really not a big deal.

daredevil

Don Pacifico

It's convenient to completely ignore his injury troubles.

Big Willie

SimplyThePest He probably knows he's fucked up there but is doubling down on it instead of admitting he may have made a bad call.

Reminds me of those comments about how he was feeling under pressure to play Saliba.

QuincyAbeyie

It's convenient to assume that he's eased in forever.

daredevil

In the age of now now now, it sure can feel like forever. In reality, it's only been 6 months since he's returned, half of which was the summer break.

Big Willie

daredevil In reality, it's only been 6 months since he's returned, half of which was the summer break.

In reality it's actually been 9 months going on 10 since he returned in January. He's been available since the turn of the year and since his first appearance back he hasn't had any injuries thay kept him out according to the stats. In that time he played a total of 174 minutes of football up until yesterday. That's a effectively a total of just under six 30min bench appearances.

Martinelli who was supposedly made to wait for a return still ended up playing in 23 out of the 35 games he was available for since he returned from injury in December 2020. Granted a lot were substitute appearances, he still made nearly 850mins in all competitions in those months between mid December until the end of the season. Aside from one period during February where he didn't play any minutes that is.

Burnwinter

Well, didn't watch the whole of the Brentford match (got spoiled on the result), but I did just watch a solid half of it, and I reckon Smith Rowe looked alright. Havertz still unimpressive but could've been worse.

daredevil

Big Willie

Smith Rowe returned from injury in January, but then got injured again. Here's a timeline for ease of reference;

Jan 10 - Smith Rowe gets 10 mins against Oxford United
Jan 27 - Smith Rowe dealing with a new injury and will miss Man City game
Feb 4 - Smith Rowe unavailable for Everton game
Feb 10 - Unavailable against Brentford
Feb 15 - Unavailable against Man City
Feb 18 - Available against Villa

So that's just over 7 months to be exact. There was no reason to risk him last season given his recurring injury and the fact that we had better players than him in the pecking order.

This season, there is a strong case to bring him back into the fold and give him more playing time.

Burnwinter

I don't get why you'd argue Smith Rowe hasn't been held back from the side by Arteta.

Aside from the empirical fact he's barely featured even while turning out for England U21s so blatantly fit, Arteta's acknowledged as much, with comments about fitness and training and more, as well as the condescending tone of these latest remarks.

Glad to see him getting a run, couple of nice moments for him against Brentford. He offers something markedly different from Vieira or Havertz in our side.

Not sure how it all comes together, but I can see Smith Rowe's smooth pass and move football doing something to link Martinelli into things better, which is a big area we've gone backwards so far this season. Can't be overemphasised how much we need a left side that's capable of generating plenty of chances.

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